Transition from our room to own room??

[jellybabe]

My ds is now almost 17mths and has been sleeping in our room since birth. He sleeps in his cot and although he dont sleep through yet (he wakes about once a night, but i think mostly for reassurance),  he does fall asleep by himself when put down at night. We have a new baby on the way and i have till april to get him to transition from our room to his own. He is familiar with the room,but hasnt slept in it yet. My sister use to live with us. We dont have a toddler bed for him, only a normal single bed. Is that to large for a toddler his age? I was thinking in using bedgaurds for him not to fall off. Should I move his cot to his room first, till he gets use to sleeping in the room by himself, and then move him to the bed? Or let him go from cot straight to bed in his room? Or let him have naps on the bed in the day? I have no idea where to start. He does wake up at night sometimes for a drink of water from his sippy, and usually will fall asleep by himself again. Should I leave the sippy with him so that he can have a drink instead of waking for me? Any tips and advice would be very much appreciated.

Kind regads
Sheree

[trisharushbrook]

Hi Sheree - I would move his cot into the new room to maintain the familiarity.  Once he is comfortable and back to sleeping what you consider normal then introduce the bed.  I haven't transitioned my two to beds yet as they are too young but I would think that a toddler bed would be better - they are usually closer to the ground and mattress is not so big.  Our cribs convert into toddler beds so we plan to use those. 
When I moved the girls from our room to theirs (after about 6mths) I found that they slept just the same.  We had just been traveling for the whole summer and they had slept in various rooms so it was a good time to do it but you might be surprised as to how adaptable he is.  If he freaks out you might want to sleep in the room with him to start and move closer to the door each night until he is comfortable.
There is no getting away from the fact that you lose the convenience of having baby just feet away from you if they need you in the night.....  I am kept going running into the room for one or the other only sometimes to find that I needed have bothered as they are just making noise versus fussing.  We have two light sleepers and I am always worried that one will wake the other.
Good luck - think you are right to do this now.   Having him in his own room when baby arrives will be so important as you will have enough to do then.